Monday, September 15, 2008

13 years

I was working on Saturday, so for the first time didn't actually note the date. It's been thirteen years since Oklahoma City. I was in OKC. I heard the bomb go off. Although, I no longer worked there, I went into St. Anthony's and scrubbed. It was six blocks from the Federal Building. Normally when I scrub a case, I never even notice the patient's name. I still remember the most serious patient's name. I called the ICU for two weeks checking on her.

13 years. I no longer think about every day, or every week, but it is always there, and always will be. When September 11 came around, I wasn't shocked. Angry and horrified, yes. Shocked, no. The world is not safe.

Another memory from that day. When the first rush was over, I went to the break room to wait. There were boxes of Sonic hamburgers. It seems that Sonic decided to send food to the hospitals. They knew there would be a lot of people working a lot of hours. No one asked, but they sensed a need that they could fill and then filled it. I will always be a Sonic customer.

There was a lot of people seeing needs and filling them. St. Anthony's, being the closest hospital, saw hundreds of walking wounded in a very few hours. Many of them had lacerations that needed stitches. They were able to get them, in part, because Luanna, the Scrub Tech who was in charge of central supply, had people tear apart all of the non essential sets, the GYN sets and the like, and reassemble the instruments into suture trays; needle holder, forceps, two hemostats, and scissors. Lord knows how many people made similar contributions.